Chicago investigators are questioning four African-Americans after a Facebook Live video shows a group of people torturing a white mentally disabled man while someone yelled “F*** Trump!” and “F*** white people!”

Chicago police were made aware of the video Tuesday afternoon. A young African American woman streamed the video live on Facebook showing at least four people holding the young white man hostage.

“The video is reprehensible,” said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
“It’s sickening. You know it makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that,” Police Supt. Eddie Johnson added.

Throughout the video, the victim is repeatedly kicked and hit, his scalp is cut, all while he is tied up with his mouth taped shut.

At one point, the victim is held at knife point and told to curse President-elect Donald Trump. The group also forces the victim to drink water from a toilet.

The suspects can be heard saying they want the video to go viral.

Detectives think the victim, who lives in the suburbs and appeared to be in his late teens or early 20s, met some acquaintances in northwest suburban Streamwood and they drove him to Chicago in a stolen vehicle, Guglielmi said.

The victim is then believed to have been held hostage and tortured in an apartment in the 3400 block of West Lexington on the West Side, Guglielmi said.

After torturing the man for between 24-48 hours, the suspects tossed the man out in the brutal cold wearing nothing but his shorts. When officers found him wandering in below-freezing temperatures he was too traumatized and disoriented to speak.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around the mindset of hating another person merely for the color of their skin. Nor can I grasp why you would kidnap and torture a random human being because you hate a politician that neither of you has ever met. That’s an act completely devoid of any logic or reason. Most of all, I don’t see how you can victimize someone whom you know to be mentally disabled.

What do I clearly understand is that there is evil in this world. I also know that good people cannot allow evil to rampage through a society unchallenged.

There are many ways to fight such evil.

One way is by challenging the popular culture (both in the entertainment industry and news media) that propagate and/or excuse such savagery as a valid form of expression. If a society really cares, they can boycott and financial punish both entertainers who validate and condone violence, and they can do the same with news outlets by boycotting the advertisers who pay their bills. They can also punish manipulative politicians who use hate and division to retain power. This approach sends a message that we will not tolerate such hatred to colonize and metastasize out into the wider society.

Another way to combat this sort of hatred is via law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Perpetrators of such crimes should be caught, tried by a jury of their peers, and sentenced to prison for the maximum possible sentence.

The final option is to shoot these fools in the face, because some fools just need shot.

While I would never encourage or condone vigilante behavior or extrajudicial retribution, a kidnapping in progress justifies the use of deadly force in third-party self defense. The victim in this particular incident was mentally disabled and does not appear to have known the intentions of the four sadistic animals who kidnapped and then tortured him. He apparently went willingly. It would be hard to justify using force when a person willfully goes with other people of their own free will.

Overt kidnapping attempts, however, are another story entirely.

If you see a person or group of persons attempt to snatch an adult or child and it is a clear kidnapping—not just a parent dealing with an angry child, for example, but someone attempting to take your child or loved one by force—you have every moral, ethical, and legal right to put a gun to their head and pull the trigger. This is lawful third-party self defense in every jurisdiction I’m aware of (check your local laws to be sure) designed to prevent a felony (kidnapping) that could (and often does) result in a criminal homicide.

Protect each other, my friends. Don’t succumb to hate, but never shy away from confronting evil wherever you find it.

Bob Owens is the Editor of BearingArms.com.
Bob is a graduate of roughly 400 hours of professional firearms training classes, including square range and force-on force work with handguns and carbines. He is a past volunteer instructor with Project Appleseed. He most recently received his Vehicle Close Quarters Combat Instructor certification from Centrifuge Training, and is the author of the short e-book, So You Want to Own a Gun.
He can be found on Twitter at bob_owens.
https://bearingarms.com/author/bobowens-bearingarms/